The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda // Commentary : Chapter 4 -3. Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday, March 06, 2023. 07:00.

The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda

Chapter 4: The Nature of Avidya - 3.

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5. When one gets knowledge of the Self, this Avidya vanishes. It is the destruction of Avidya that is the Brahmic-seat.

Avidya no more appears when one acquires the wisdom of the Truth. It exists only until the melting away of egoism. When love for life is broken, when the will to live, the Abhinivesha or the clinging to personal endurance is frustrated by Vicharana and contemplation, when the powers of the mind are turned inward and utilised in building the counter-construction of the imagination of the reverse order, the vexation of existence in limited bodies comes to an end.

The realization of the Self is the destruction of Avidya. The two acts are simultaneous. The act of realization is not a positive achieving but a negative destroying. It is not getting something but removing something. It is not an invention but a discovery. The Reality is flooding the very core of the being of all at all times without even a sense of breakage anywhere or in any condition. But the free flow of the flood of Brahman is blocked by the Jiva's psychic apparatus and the destruction of this protrusion of the force of the inner psychological organ is the process of Self-realisation. The unceasing overflow of Brahman is termed in various ways as the different powers and efforts of nature. That is why the Upanishads take recourse to negative processes of world-denial and Brahman-realization.

The spiritual aspirant, therefore, should remove the negative propensities hidden in the recesses of his consciousness and lead a life cut off from the bustle and din of the world. He should not engage himself in the work of carrying out the scheme of Pravritti-Marga or the way of worldly life. A person who has understood properly the mystery of this world illusion cannot live in the negative plane of earthly consciousness even for a second. Desire, anger, greed are the harbingers of the prison-life of Samsara and the ferocious life of the mind is kept up by giving food to it through the negative qualities of sensuality. The aspirant should therefore restrain his mental functions. Then only the glorious Truth of the Self will be revealed. The Self is not to be caught from outside, it is the innermost being of man. Those who run away from their Self are led astray by the force of Avidya into the pit of births and deaths.

6. Just as the mirror is dimmed by dirt, so Brahman is veiled by Avidya. Therefore human beings are deluded by this Avidya.

Brahman is veiled by the force of Avidya just as a clean mirror is soiled by the blow of the air that man exhales. Avidya is the origin of selfish endeavour and narrow interests which try to make the ego live long. When the requirements of the ego are supplied life on earth is prolonged and the stream of Samsara never comes to an end. The Sadhaka therefore is required to root out selfishness by denying the individual interests through self-abnegation and refusal to abide by personal cravings. The lower appetites of the animal self drag the Jiva through the senses in all directions and it becomes hard for the afflicted soul to rest in peace. The covetous nature originated from the desire to live long on earth is strengthened by the activity directed towards the fulfilment of that end. A complete sacrifice of the self for the purpose of others' interests renders the Jiva fit to be alive to the higher knowledge. This is the method of Karma-Yoga which abstains from personal enjoyment of life and gives happiness to others.

Human beings are deluded by Avidya and they can be freed from its snares only through Sadhana for Perfection. Every way of spiritual effort is centred in the breaking open of the ego which is the root of the passion for living. Avidya is the progenitress of the succeeding afflictions of Asmita, Raga, Dwesha and Abhinivesha. These afflictions can be eradicated through a turning to the Source of Eternal Life through regulation of conduct and meditation on the spiritual Ideal. Whatever be the conviction of the worldly man regarding the reality of his life in the descension to error and perpetration, he cannot help seeing discord everywhere in the life of even small creatures. Yet, man runs after the possession of material gains and exerts to acquire a high name and wide fame. He does not realise the defects of phenomenal life and persists to pull himself on somehow or other in his present wretched state. This wide-spread deluded business of life is the effect of Avidya and man is saved only when he takes refuge in the Permanent Self, which is his own being and stops from all further new under-takings in his life.

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To be continued

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